New Passions

We tend to walk away with some powerful things after a L&L conference. Sometimes it's a new passion, sometimes it's life-changing awareness.

Both happened this year. I'm working on quieting my "chatter" and being fully present with the kids. Thanks to Anne Ohman, over at Shine with Unschooling, I'm learning how to tell myself to be quiet...a very hard thing for me to do!

I also got to reconnect with Christina, or Auntie Nina. Although we see each other on a pretty regular basis, this weekend at L&L allowed us to share so much more and revisit a close friendship we shared years ago. Nina inspires me with her incredible optimism and deep love for my kids. We all feel extremely lucky to have her in our lives.

Ella went home with the cake decorating passion basket...so we have made several batches of icing, colored some very crazy colors. She decorated sheets of wax paper first, to get the hang of things. Then she decorated her first cake. She immediately asked anyone else if they wanted to have a go...to use the bag and decorate. It was so sweet, and showed her very generous heart.

Sophie loved basking in all her friends at L&L. She has had nothing but soft-clothes days since getting back home. Soft clothes are also affectionately known as life clothes...or pajamas to the uninspired! Her soft clothes included the gorgeous wool socks Pam G. gave her at the L&L good bye picnic. Pam had been knitting these socks throughout the conference, so it was an extra special gift to Sophie, as it is a reminder of our wonderful time there. Sophie also won a dragon ocarina in the raffle, and has been trying to learn Zelda tunes on it. She spent all day yesterday, in her soft clothes, working on a supply list for an arctic expedition...Swallows and Amazons style. She's reading Winter Holiday, and is inspired by the cooling temps.



Max won Pokemon Pearl in the raffle and has been gloriously achieving great things in his game. I think one of Max's highlights at L&L was meeting Amy Steinberg and then grooving to her tunes at the concert. During the concert, Amy called Max out because of his amazing dancing. He was shining so bright! The next day, as Amy was leaving, she told Max she had a crush on him. The boy is positively floating!

Alex has been sleeping in late and constantly glorifying in all our good food. He made some new friends at the conference and has been emailing one of them since setting up his own email account. He is loving learning the texting lingo...of which I am no great help. After the conference, Eli Gerzon, who was a speaker, posted about a wilderness camp in upstate New York called Hawk Circle. I remembered looking into Hawk Circle over a year ago, but nothing ever came of it. Anyway, with the reminder from Eli, I checked out the website and lo and behold they are having a Teen Homeschooler Retreat...this October! Well, things fell in place rather quickly, and Alex is going to get to go. I can't even describe what this trip means to him. He has wanted to explore wilderness training, hunting, shelter building, tracking, for a long time. He does it on a small scale around our home, but he has expressed an interest in taking it further. Well, this is it. I am so happy to be able to help him follow his passions. In addition, this will be the first time he has ever traveled alone, or done anything really without us, his family, around for support. This is huge, as Alex really loves being with his family and all of us doing things together. I think this is an incredible opportunity for him to grow and gain a bit of the independence he has started wanting in a safe, caring environment.

And we still have ARGH to look forward to....more passions shared, more friendships strengthened, more unschoolers to connect with and gain inspiration from.

Absolutely can't wait!